Variance
Chapter Three
-Filming: Day One-
"Okay." Kakashi clapped his hands together, looking at the cast who had gathered around on the set for shooting, all dressed in their wardrobes for the first scene that will be shot that day. "So today we begin shooting, and I just want you all to know that I'm extremely excited to work with you. Now the first scene we are doing is when Andy," he gestured to Natsumi, "and her best friend, Natalie," he pointed to Minako, "are on their way to Andy's house to hang out, and are talking about Hunter, Andy's amazing new boyfriend. Any questions?" he asked, looking to the girls.
Natsumi shook her head. "Nope."
"I think we're good." Minako smiled.
"Good." Haired man nodded. "Then let's begin."
Natsumi pulled down her small shirt slightly, since she was dressed in a punk style, with tight black skinny jeans and a studded belt around her waist, and a black small t-shirt that revealed her flat stomach. There was a silvery design on the front and luckily they didn't have to do anything with her hair, since it was already oddly colored. She went to the set and stretched, watching Minako before her gaze shifted to Akito, who was lounging in his custom chair and watching her carefully. He smirked and lowered his aviators a bit, his forest green gaze so strong that it was made her feel like he could see right through her, to her soul.
Minako walked up to her then. "Ready Natty?" she asked, tearing the other woman's faze from the ebony haired man.
"Yeah." She nodded, smiling at her and getting into their starting spot.
Kakashi took his seat and lifted his megaphone. "Action!"
Natsumi and Minako started their slow pace, both smiling beautifully. "Andy, how come you've been so bubbly today?" Minako asked, resting her hand on the girl's shoulder.
"Oh Natalie. I've been about to burst. I've been trying to keep on the down low, but I'm so excited. I've been seeing this guy. He's in a band. A drummer! And he's so delicious, I just can't believe he's actually interested in me." She blushed on cue, letting out a content sigh.
"Really?" Minako asked, exaggerating the question like a teenage girl would do. "What's his name? And how did you meet him?"
"His name is Hunter. And I met him at that concert a few weeks ago. We've been chatting and been on a few dates. He asked me just a couple days ago, and he's so nice. Though, I've yet to see his band yet."
"That's so cool!" she squealed. "You have a boyfriend!" she exclaimed, and then both girls proceeded to jump up and down, squealing as well. They stopped after a few seconds and continued their walk down the street. "So when do you see him next?"
Natsumi tapped her chin and smiled, looking absolutely beautiful. "This Saturday. He asked me to come see him play."
"That sounds like fun. You'll have to tell me how it goes. My parents are making me go camping with them." She rolled her light blue eyes.
"Gross." Natsumi made a face, but then the two laughed once more. They reached the door of the house they had bought for the movie and Kakashi yelled cut once they were inside.
They came back outside, both smiling. "So how did we do?" Minako asked.
"You both did great. But we're gonna need to re-shoot it because there was some funky stuff going on in the background that I don't want there." He told them. "So if you girls need a quick break, go ahead and take it while we re-set up the cameras."
Natsumi sighed, she hated doing re-shoots. She nodded and walked over to the concession table. She took a bottle of water and unscrewed the lid, taking a long refreshing drink. Akito came up to her then and grabbed himself a water bottle, though his gaze was on her the entire time, even as he unscrewed it and took a drink.
"What do you want?" she asked, refusing to look over at him and meet his gaze.
He pulled his water bottle away from his lips. "Can a man not walk over and get a drink of water?" he asked, taking another sip.
"They can if they don't stare at the person there like a stalker." She pointed out, finally facing him.
He smirked. "Who says I'm looking at you? I could just be staring at your flaw." He turned and walked away, back towards his chair, a clear sign of dismissal.
She unscrewed her lid once more and threw her water on him, dousing his back and then went wide eyed. "Oh my God. I'm so sorry!"
He simply turned around, and before she knew it her entire front was wet. "It's okay, now we're even." He smirked.
Natsumi looked shocked, not fully comprehending what had happened. "You jerk! Why would you do that? I'm shooting right now!" she yelled, jumping on him, wrapping her legs around his waist and hitting him over the head multiple times. "What the hell is wrong with you, you piece of crap?" she yelled trying to strangle him and as he tried to rip her off.
"Get off you psychotic bitch!"
Kakashi ran over then. "STOP!" he yelled, making both freeze and look over at him. "What the hell is going on?" he asked. Which was a mistake, because then both of them began to rant at him, gesturing to each other and sounding equally as upset. "Oh for the love of God." The gray haired man muttered to himself, wiping his hand down his face. Then he looked back at them. "Shut up!" he ordered, and they did.
"I don't care who started it, or whatever. Akito, please release Natsumi, and Natsumi, get off of him, and head over to your trailer so we can fix your hair, makeup, and clothes." He ordered.
Akito removed his hands from Natsumi's thighs, so that she was the only one supporting herself on him. She got down and the both looked at the floor, appearing like children who had just been scolded. They glanced at one another for only a moment before Natsumi walked off to go get ready once again.
Haru came over, his hands in his pockets, looking over his friend. "Are you out of your mind? What the hell is wrong with you?"
Akito shrugged. "She started it." he said by way of explanation, heading back over to the refreshments to get another water bottle.
"Try not being such a dick. Ok?" he called after him and went back to his seat.
Akito rolled his eyes, grabbing another water bottle and then going back to his seat. Filming started back up after about an hour, and once that scene was done everyone got ready to film the scene where Andy first meets the band. Kyo walked over to Natsumi, since they were setting up the cameras, and he looked extremely nervous. "I don't think I can go on." He whispered to her, since he didn't want anyone else to hear him. "I'm pretty sure I'm experiencing extreme stage fright."
She looked up to him and smiled, placing her hand on his arm. "Don't worry about it. It'll be perfect. Here, hold on I'll get you something." She hurried off and came back, sticking the yellow straw in a wild cherry Capri Sun. "Drink this, it'll help. It helped me when I was new."
His eyes widened in glee and he gasped. "I haven't had one of these in forever!" he said, taking it from her and quickly drinking up the contents of the container. When he finished he nodded. "Okay, okay I think I'm good." Then he shook his head. "No, no I'm not." He looked at Natsumi once more. "What if I mess up? Do I just keep talking? Or are we supposed to start over? And what if I just plain suck? I don't handle criticism very well."
She just smiled and hugged him tightly. "Calm down! Just think about being at a show and how much you want to please the crowd. Well, in acting it's the same thing. You are pleasing your audience with your performance and whatever you do, if you mess up just go with it." she told him and pat his shoulders. "Just be yourself and smile, but never look at the camera, always look at me if you feel nervous or slipping. Ok?"
"Okay." He nodded. "I can do this. I can do this!" he squeaked. His eyes widened at the way he sounded, and then he took a deep breath, appearing like he was clearing his karma. "Okay." He said, sounding normal. Then he smiled at Natsumi. "I'm ready."
"You'll do perfect." She told him, and headed towards the set. They were inside now, the whole place looking like a club with a stage. He followed after her, and Haru looked pretty excited as well.
Haru took a deep breath and tried to clear his mind. "I hope we don't embarrass you Natsumi."
She shrugged, waving it off. "Don't worry. I'm sure you will all do fine."
"She can embarrass herself anyways." Akito mumbled from his spot leaning against the wall.
Natsumi's happy gaze turned into a sharp glare that zeroed in on the man. "Do you always have to be such a jerk?"
"Yeah Akito, do you always have to be such a jerk?" Haru repeated, giving his friend a threatening glance.
"Oh sorry, I'm just getting into character." He rolled his eyes before focusing his gaze on Kakashi, who had walked over to them.
"You guys ready?" he asked.
Kyo nodded. "Yup!"
Natsumi gave a nod and once they were all in place Kakashi called action. Natsumi pushed through the crowd towards the 'door' to the stage, and finally emerged just as Kyo took his cue to come out and search around, finally spotting her. She hurried to meet him, and once they were in contact she smiled brightly. "You were so good!" she said loudly, since the room was filled with noise and applause.
"Thanks babe!" he replied, wrapping his arm around her waist. "You wanna come backstage and meet the guys?" he asked.
"Am I allowed to?" she bubbled up, leaning against him.
"Of course." He led her over to the door he had just come out of, taking her through it. The cameras followed them, since it was just a thin wall. In the room were Akito, Haru, and Vincent, each sitting down in their own positions. "Hey guys, this is my girlfriend that I was telling you about, Andy." He looked at Natsumi. "Andy, that's Victor, he plays the keyboard." He pointed to Vincent, who nodded to her. "That's Rodrick. He's the bass." He pointed at Haru, who smiled brightly. Then he pointed at Akito, who had a blank look on his face. "And that's Seth. He sings and plays guitar." Akito's face changed when he and Natsumi made eye contact, to where he looked astonished and all of a sudden intrigued with her.
Natsumi's expression shifted into mirroring his, and they stared at one another for much longer than they should have. Feeling Kyo's grip on her tighten as he was supposed to, she appeared to have realized her blunder and tore her gaze from Akito's and looked around at the group. "It's nice to meet you all finally, I've heard so much about you. You guys were awesome." She stepped forward, shaking Haru's hand and doing the same with Vincent.
Then she came to Akito and lent her hand down to him, but he stood and took hers tenderly. "Um, Seth right?" she fumbled around, her eyes locking with his once more, and for the first time Akito was truly impressed with her ability to act.
Akito felt something shift within him, but he kept his face the same, since he didn't want to get berated for coming out of character. It was hard though, because the way she was acting, for the movie, made him wish that she acted like this around him all the time, instead of hating him. "Yes." He said, bringing her hand up and kissing it softly. "It's nice to meet you. Hunter just doesn't shut up about how amazing you are." The corner of his mouth tilted up in a smile.
A dark blush spread across her cheeks, but her hand remained in his. "Oh, well I'm sure he's being generous." She smiled.
"Not from what I can see." He replied, continuing to hold her hand. Kyo walked over then and wrapped his arm around her waist once more, giving the ebony haired man a semi-threatening look.
"Yeah, she sure is great. Come on Andy, I want to show you some of the equipment and stuff." He said, turning to lead her off, in the process causing her hand to slide out of Akito's.
"Oh, okay." She said, glancing over her shoulder back at Akito before focusing on the one she was with.
"Cut!" Kakashi called. "That was absolutely fantastic!"
"Really?" Kyo asked, obviously glad about it.
"Yes!" Kakashi said, smiling. He walked over to Natsumi and took her hands in his own. "Natsumi, you were brilliant, as always." Then he looked at Akito. "So were you. I knew the two of you would be perfect." He said, turning and walking back over to the cameras to make sure everything had been filmed. "Didn't I say it?" he asked the crew. "Perfect chemistry, such a rare find."
Akito shook his head and walked over to Natsumi. "Is he always this strange?" he asked her.
"Yup." She nodded, sighing. "Sometimes he gets even weirder. One time the male lead did just what he envisioned and he kissed him. Right on the lips. I had nightmares about it for a week. But I'm pretty sure he was a little drunk."
He shivered at the image. "Yeah well I hope he doesn't do that to me." He looked at her. "You…are actually as good as people say." He admitted, looking off as if what he had said wasn't a big deal. "And I'm sorry about the whole water thing."
"It's fine and thanks." She actually smiled, though he missed it since he looked away. "I worked pretty hard to get where I am and I really like it."
"Yeah, that's kind of how I feel about my music." He glanced at her. "I'm thirsty." He declared, walking off the set and towards his chair where his bottle of water was sitting.
They shot a couple more scenes and Kakashi only got more and more excited with every scene Akito and Natsumi did. And he even complimented Kyo, saying he was truly genuine. It began to get late, and finally he announced they would wrap it up for the night and pick it up the next day.
While everyone else was gathering their things to leave, Kyo went up to Natsumi, hugging her lightly. "Thanks for helping me out Natsumi. Filming with you is just as much fun as I thought it would be."
"Thanks a bunch and you did perfect. You looked totally awesome. Sorry I'm a back stabbing ho." She laughed, resting her hand on his arm.
"Sorry I'm not a good enough boyfriend to remain appealing to you." He joked. "I'll see you tomorrow!" he said, running off and joining the other members of his band, as they were all leaving together. Natsumi watched him run off, and then locked gazes with Akito. He smirked at her and gave her a nod, before turning and walking out the door with his friends.
She rolled her eyes and looked over to her brother, who came over and offered her a water bottle. "Great job today."
"Thanks." She sighed, taking a long drink.
"You and Akito did a pretty good job."
She lifted her hand, silencing him. "I don't even want to imagine what you were about to say. So zip it and let's go get something to eat. I'm starving."
"Sounds good to me. I'm hungry too." He took the water from her and they headed over to Kakashi.
"Great day Kakashi. I'll see you tomorrow." She smiled, giving him a tight hug.
"You too kiddo." He returned her hug. "See you in the morning."
"Tah." She waved, leaving with Toshiro close behind her. After all, she'd earned a nice relaxing evening.
